If you are new to trading, this will take time, experience, and good ole fashioned failure.
You sit for an interview at a trading firm and open with,
“I am a trader.”
Interviewer: “Okay…can you tell me more…?”
“I trade stocks using technical analysis.”
Interviewer: “…Okay, next.”
Every trading style is different. It’s why 95% of traders fail. They log onto Twitter, Stocktwits, Instagram, and Reddit and follow trader after trader and trade idea after trade idea.
What these followers fail to realize is everyone has a different plan. X trade may be a big winner for X, but a big loser for Z.
X trader may be looking for a 3 minute scalp while Y trader buys it as a swing and it falls 20%.
This is why it is important to create your own system. Your own set of rules. This will come with a lot of failure and a lot of time. But it’s the only way forward.
To speed up the process you have to find good teachers and people who are 1,2,3, or even 10 steps ahead of you. This is what makes social media so incredible.
But it is extremely important to keep your influences small and understand their goals and objectives completely or their winning ideas will be your losing ideas.
Below are some items we have to knock down.
What are Your Goals?
You should be able to give some answers to the below questions:
- How old are you?
- What is your financial status?
- Debt:
- Loans:
- Employed:
- Savings:
- How much can you start with?
- How much can you contribute per day, week, month, year?
- How much will you be able to trade/invest in the future:
- In 1 month:
- Next year:
- In 3 years
- In 5 years:
- In 10 years:
- Are you looking to trade or invest? Or both? Do you know the difference?
- Long-term vs short-term?
- What is your short-term, medium-term, and long-term?
- What does trading mean to you?
- What does investing mean to you?
- What is your risk tolerance?
- How much time are you willing to spend looking at charts each day or week?
- What kind of life do you want to live?
- What does your perfect day look like? Start there and work your way up to your perfect month and year.
- Do you want to live large or simple? Define in detail what that lifestyle is down to your monthly expenses.
- Is your desire for a certain lifestyle out of ego or truly what you want? Be honest with yourself.
- What type of impact do you wish to have? What do you want your legacy to be?
- When you die, how do you want people to think of you?
- When you die, how do you want your legacy to impact people? In that way, exactly.
- Do you need to be someone who leaves a powerful legacy that improves people’s lives for essentially forever? Do you not need to be someone like that? Define it.
Now let’s dive into Stock Market specifics. Again if you’re new to the markets, you are not going to have the answers at this time. But give it a shot, it will be fun to look back at how far you have come when you are in the dumps from your first big loss.
- What type of trades are you looking to make? Swing trading, day trading, position trading? Options or shares? Be specific.
- What type of stocks would you like to trade? Large cap? FAANG? Mid Cap? Growth? Dividends? ETFs? Again, be specific.
- CAN you afford to look at charts all day? This will effect your strategies most.
Stocks to Trade
Let’s put together a list of 30-40 stocks you’d like to own. This will be especially important for beginners. Everyday, these will be the only stock charts you look at for the next 30-60 days. We want to understand how they move, react to news, and how they move with the market as a whole.
Having trouble finding 30-40 tickers? Look around you. Look at yourself. Look around you.
If I look around me right now, I see:
- Girl wearing LULU
- Myself wearing GPS
- Mad Men on NFLX on ROKU and through SONY speakers
- Typing on AAPL through MSFT
- AMZN tab for Christmas shopping
- TWTR tab open for scrolling on GOOG Chrome
- ADBE PDF application
- Furniture from HD
I attached the Foundations Workbook below. Go through it. Seriously. Even if you have no idea what to say for some items. It will be fun to look back it at in just a few weeks and see your progress.
